World Scouting – Educating for Global Citizenship by Eduard Vallory was first published in hard cover in 2012 and the released in paperback in 2013. It is now available on Amazon for Scouters that are interested in an academic study of the Scout Movement.

Many works have been written on scouting worldwide, but most of them were centered in a particular country or moment of history. This book, based on the first existing academic research on world scouting, explains in a very comprehensible way the main characteristics of (boy and girl) Scouting, the largest youth movement in the planet, existing in more than 165 countries of the five continents. Using new data and storytelling, the work covers the main elements that distinguish the scout movement over the world, and explains its origin, evolution, operating system, and the soundness of its values.

The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of literature related to Scouting, is well documented with hundreds of footnotes citing sources for the author’s statements, and well blended with a good storytelling style. This is a must have book for any Scouter wanting to have a complete library of books related to Scouting!

Taking a challenge from Scouts South Africa, the SA Branch of Scouts Australia organized a Kon-Tiki Raft Competition that ran from 23-25 March 2012 at Lake Bonney in Barmera, SA and involved around 200 Scouts and family members from around South Australia. During the competition an Adelaide radio station, FiveAA, picked up the story and did a two part interview with the event organizer. You can listen to both parts here:

The news article, Brand New Flotilla of (not very) luxurious marine accommodation to be launched at Lake Bonney this Saturday. in two parts can be found at these links:

At 37, Bear Grylls is the youngest Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and in many ways a global ambassador for Scouting. He is well known for his roles in television programs like Man vs Wild and Born Survivor. The World Organization of the Scout Movement has published a great interview with Mr. Grylls, ‘Scouting helped me to be prepared’ – Bear Grylls, an interview, at http://www.scout.org/en/information_events/news/bear_grylls_interview. This World Scouting Special Feature is well worth the read and highly recommended.

North American Scout Associations to Host 24th World Scout Jamboree

Scouts from Canada, Mexico, and the United States will welcome more than 35,000 from around the world

CURITIBA, Brazil, Jan. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Scouts from every corner of the world will soon have the experience of a lifetime at The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia [http://www.facebook.com/TheBechtelSummit]. The bid to host the 2019 World Scout Jamboree is a combined effort of the Boy Scouts of America, Scouts Canada, and the Scout Association of Mexico. This will be the first time the World Scout Jamboree has been held in the United States in more than 40 years.

The bid to win the 2019 World Scout Jamboree was voted on by the World Scout Conference, which comprises 160 national Scout associations that represent 220 countries and territories around the world. The 160 associations make up the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and each member association is able to send Scouts to represent their country at a world jamboree.

The North American bid committee began its work in 2009 and met six times to plan the bid process. A youth contingent from Canada, Mexico, and the United States submitted its bid to the World Scout Conference, and toured the West Virginia site. The group wanted to experience the site firsthand and gather photos and other testimonials to support its presentation to the World Scout Conference in Brazil in January.

For 12 days, thousands of young people from around the world gather in a tented city for activities and adventure during a world jamboree. Scouts have an opportunity to interact and participate with others from different cultures and to build solidarity and understanding across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The Summit, the Boy Scouts of America’s newest high-adventure base and the permanent home for the BSA’s national Scout jamboree beginning in 2013 and continuing in 2017, consists of 10,600 acres.

“Scouts who attend the 2019 World Scout Jamboree at The Summit will, for the first time at a world jamboree, be able to participate in white-water rafting, rock climbing, and mountain biking. We are very pleased that the conference saw the wealth of new and exciting activities that will be available at this site and will make it available to young people in the program,” said James Turley, international commissioner.

Aimed at 14- to 17-year-olds, Scouts attend the world jamboree in groups called contingents. They are encouraged to meet other Scouts from different cultures, religions, and countries, ultimately learning that strangers can become friends. The event is supported by thousands of international adult volunteers.

While Scouts Canada has hosted a world jamboree in the past—1955 and 1983—this will be the first time that Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico, Asociacion Civil will share hosting duties with Canada and the United States. “The Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico is proud to join Scouts Canada and the Boy Scouts of America to host the 2019 World Scout Jamboree. The opportunity before us is magnificent because the Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico is a smaller Scout association and most likely would never host a world Scout jamboree on our own. Here, we will combine our talents and our cultures to bring what will prove to be one of the most incredible, successful jamborees ever!” said Presidente Nacional Omar Lugo Aguirre.

To enhance international contingents’ visit to North America, some Scouts will begin this trip in Mexico, where they can immerse themselves in more than 3,000 years of Mesoamerican culture. Also available will be tours of Canada’s vibrant cities and unspoiled wilderness. U..S. tours will include Washington, D.C., the Grand Canyon, and Hollywood.

“There has always been a wonderful relationship between Scouts Canada, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico,” said Mike Scott, international commissioner for Scouts Canada. “The planning process for the 2019 World Scout Jamboree will help develop this friendship and spirit of cooperation even more. This event will involve and engage a huge number of our adult volunteer leaders and young people in a process that will immerse them in different cultures and cause them to be terrific ambassadors for Canada.”

About the Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America prepares young people for life by providing the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. The Scouting organization is composed of 2.7 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 21, and more than a million volunteers, in nearly 300 local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.scouting.org.

About Scouts Canada

Scouts Canada was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. With a membership of about 146,000 it is the second largest Scout association in North America. Scouts Canada has always been in the forefront of world Scouting, providing leadership and financial support to other Scout associations. Scouts Canada hosted the last world Scout jamboree held in North America in Calgary in 1983. For more information on Scouts Canada, please visit www.scouts.ca.

About the Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico

The Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico has always been a leader for Scouting in Spanish-speaking countries throughout the Americas. It continues to host large regional events and provide leadership to several Scout associations. Founded in 1920, the Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico is headquartered in Mexico City and boasts a membership of more than 30,000 members, making it one of the largest Scout associations in Latin America. For more information on the Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico, please visit www.scouts.org.mx.

Great news story by the BBC – Scouts’ Christmas post raises money. In many areas of the UK, Scout Groups provide an alternative postal service for Christmas greeting cards and in turn raise money to support Scouting. The news story shows how it works in the Somerset area. (In a time of postal cuts here in the U.S., maybe this is an idea that could spread here and catch on!)

Scouting around the globe is making itself known via social media including Twitter. For those of you who may want to follow other Scouting Associations and see what they are doing, here is a partial list of Scouting Associations that can be found on Twitter. Click the links, log into Twitter, and click “Follow” to see them in your Twitter timeline. If you know of another Scouting Association on Twitter, please add a comment with their Twitter address – thanks in advance!

For those of you who have an interest in keeping up with patch and memorabilia trading and collecting, we received this message from the ISCA earlier this month:

The International Scouting Collectors Association is pleased to announce that all issues of the ISCA Journal are now available for viewing and for download at http://www.scouttrader.org/ in the members only area. Journal issues previously unavailable in digital form (March 2001-December 2008) have been scanned and uploaded to our website as a resource for all members. The files have been processed to enable text searches and can be read on-line or downloaded to your personal computer.

Making all issues of the ISCA Journal is the first phase of our digitizing efforts. Ultimately, we plan to provide scanned publications from all of our predecessor organizations (and other memorabilia publications if we have approval to post them). Dating back to 1953, our predecessor organizations include:

- The Trader (started 1953)

- Texan Traders Den

- Western Traders Association (WTA)

- Southern California Association of Traders (SCAT)

- Region Twelve Traders Association

- American Scouting Traders Association (ASTA)

- National Scouting Collectors Society (NSCS)

If you are interested in assisting with this project, either through scanning or donating/loaning materials for scanning, please contact ISCA member and project coordinator, Kory Lewis at korylewis@yahoo.com.

We hope you enjoy having greater access to this information and look forward to expanding our digital library.

Welcome to the redesigned World Scouting web site, where we will offer news about International Scouting. I hope you will enjoy your web experience here. Please pardon our dust as reconstruction of the site continues and content is moved here from the old site.

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